Developing New Treatments for Childhood Anxiety and OCD: Can Cognitive Control Help Kids Grow Out of Illness?

Kate D. Fitzgerald, M.D. is the Ruane Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons and New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI). At Columbia University/NYSPI, she serves as Director of Research on the Children’s Day Unit, and Director of Pediatric Clinical Studies in the Center for OCD and Related Disorders. She also co-leads NIMH -funded T32 and R25 training grants to cultivate the next generation of child and adolescent psychiatry researchers. Dr. Fitzgerald’s clinical and research expertise is in pediatric obsessive compulsive and anxiety disorders. Her research has implicated alterations of neural substrate for task control in affected children, adolescents and adults. Currently, she is conducting research to elucidate developmentally sensitive mechanisms of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for patients at different ages. Dr. Fitzgerald is also studying play-based cognitive training strategy designed to reduce early childhood anxiety by increasing brain capacity for cognitive control. She has published extensively on these topics in general and child psychiatric journals.